eventually in Oakland It was probably soon after his release from the penitentiary that London became seriously interested in politics and as a result he joined an Oakland branch of the Socialist Labor Party in April Then soon afterward he enrolled as a student at the University of California at Berkeley where he attempted to further his studies in the most influential scientific and philosophic theories of the late nineteenth century Darism Social Darism Nietzscheism and Marxism He soon became restless though and he left the university during his second semester as a student From California he went North to the Klondike to search for gold and his adventures there became the basis of many stories In fact two of his most famous novels The Call of the Wild and White Fang are set in the North and while these two novels are perhaps his most famous

in the United States London is equally well known in places outside of the United States as the author of a number of socialistic works The Iron Heel The War of the Cles Revolution and Other Essays and The People of the Abyss London has said that The People of the Abyss was his favorite book it is a sociological study about the worst areas of poverty in London Englands East End and is based on Londons firsthand experiences while he lived there Early in London married Bessie Maddern and began his career as a serious writer He soon finished his first novel A Daughter of the Snows which was published in and in the summer of London met Charmian Kittredge whom he promptly fell in love with and abruptly left his wife and two daughters for In ill health most of his life by London was almost lame His bowels gave him continual pain and in order to reduce the pain London began using opium and morphine and it was not long before he became addicted to the s As a consequence his kidneys were also eventually wrecked by his misuse of all of the s and London refused to even quit smoking although he had cancer of the throat By November London was in such poor health that he spent the entire day in bed Then shortly before dawn the next day he injected himself with what would prove to be an overdose of s That evening he died he was forty years old There is naturally some question as to whether his was an intentional suicide

Londons Fiction It is interesting to note that his novel The Iron Heel written in and published in belies Londons avid interest in science fiction Considered to be one of his best novels the novel predicts a Fascist oligarchy in the United States under threat from a proletarian revolution allegedly pictured in manuscripts discovered by scholars in the socialist twentyseventh century A s Londons first science fiction tale utilizes some key

motifs of the science fiction genre a solitary embittered scientist subjects his son to some revivification experiments but the scientist is soon dematerialized by a fantastical weapon invented by his son Londons story The Shadow and the Flash has as its concern the quest for invisibility on the part of two scientists The Enemy of All the World features a mad scientist who invents a formidable weapon and terrorizes the world with it Much of Londons science fiction indicates his belief in the superiority of the white race In London